CFPB Shuffles Exec Deck Days Before Inauguration

With less than two weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released five changes to its senior leadership lineup.

“I am very excited for the new additions we are announcing today to the Bureau’s senior leadership,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “The mix of experience and talent this group brings will provide great value to the Bureau as we continue to work on behalf of consumers everywhere.”

The CFPB changes include Leandra English returning as chief of staff, Jerry Horton as chief information officer, Paul Kantwill as assistant director for servicemember affairs, John McNamara as assistant director of consumer lending, reporting and collections markets and Elizabeth (Eli) Reilly as the CFPB’s chief financial officer.

This leadership changeup is happening simultaneously as the CFPB faces an uncertain future in a Trump administration. The five-year-old agency may be facing challenges under a President Trump. Republicans have expressed strong interest in overhauling the Dodd-Frank Act, which gave it life. This uncertain future also comes at a time that the agency continues fighting its own legal battles after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that its governance was “unconstitutional.”

Public interest groups say they will try to fight for keeping not only the Bureau but also for Director Richard Cordray to finish his term, which isn’t set to expire until mid-2018. Cordray has expressed his interest in completing his term, while other agency heads have announced plans to step down.

For years, GOP lawmakers have argued that the CFPB has too much power. The party’s leaders have expressed an interest in restructuring the agency by adding a bipartisan commission, changing its budget to be approved by Congress and implementing a veto option for the agency.